Old dog, new tricks- learning to live with an RDS on a pistol

[hemiram]

It seemed like a lot of my friends were real doubters about lasers on handguns back when they first appeared. I shot an S&W 59 at a range with one and soon ordered one. I only have one surviving pistol laser now, a center mass one on my SAR CM9, the rest of the cheapo ones I bought died for one reason or another. It's almost impossible for me to miss with one as long as I can see the dots (There are 6 in a ring, and one in the center). I bought several of them on closeout at $25 a pop and I guess I'm going to break them out and stick them onto a few of my railed guns instead of saving them in case the one on my CM9 died. It's had a couple of thousand through it and neither the gun or the laser has had any issues.

 

[Gordon]

Interesting you mentioned lasers! I have a couple Olight Baldors which are Hilume lights /laser dots that are quick detach on Glock or Pic rails. They are very high quality like Holosun RDS are. I noticed in practice as I sighted the Laser beam to cowitness the red Dot that if I watched the laser beam on the target and looked through the red Dot sight it was right on Target. This sounds pretty obvious, however I was keeping focused on the target and the laser dot and when I shifted my attention thru the red dot optic it was right on target I had all the benefits of it accuracy wise. I used green dot sights with red lasers and vice versa. Th hot hook up in daylight seemed to be the Red Dot Holosun 507 sight with the Baldor green laser, it was not confusing. One drew the pistol and placed the green dot on target using gun presentation and then if there is time just look thru the optic and the red dot will be where it should and you hold it there for your shooting.

 

[someguy2800]

My latest red dot pistol I put together. Still need to get co witness sights for it.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

My experience is that pistol optics are less forgiving than irons of inconsistent presentation of the gun to the firing position, but you gain substantially in distance precision and accuracy. What I mean by the former is that when you draw a pistol, if were to close your eyes and only use body mechanics to aim, then open your eyes, if you usually have the sights aligned without having to adjust, the optic reticle will be there, and you'll be just as fast as with irons. But, if you draw and you point and your sights aren't always fairly closely aligned automatically when you do that, it's easy to lose the reticle and not know how much you need to adjust your aim to find it again. With irons that's an easier and faster fix. I have seen at least one reticle design, the ACSS Vulcan from Primary Arms on their exclusive Holosun optics, that is supposed to help with this by having an outer reticle circle larger than the optic glass. It's supposed to give you a frame of reference to rapidly adjust your aim if the reticle isn't immediately visible because if your aim is off such that you can't see the center carat of their reticle, you'll see the arc of a circle and know where to adjust.

 

[someguy2800]

My experience is that pistol optics are less forgiving than irons of inconsistent presentation of the gun to the firing position, but you gain substantially in distance precision and accuracy. What I mean by the former is that when you draw a pistol, if were to close your eyes and only use body mechanics to aim, then open your eyes, if you usually have the sights aligned without having to adjust, the optic reticle will be there, and you'll be just as fast as with irons. But, if you draw and you point and your sights aren't always fairly closely aligned automatically when you do that, it's easy to lose the reticle and not know how much you need to adjust your aim to find it again. With irons that's an easier and faster fix. I have seen at least one reticle design, the ACSS Vulcan from Primary Arms on their exclusive Holosun optics, that is supposed to help with this by having an outer reticle circle larger than the optic glass. It's supposed to give you a frame of reference to rapidly adjust your aim if the reticle isn't immediately visible because if your aim is off such that you can't see the center carat of their reticle, you'll see the arc of a circle and know where to adjust.

I am going to have to try one. I think that would solve about 80% of my apprehension to carrying with one.

Primary Arms ACSS Vulcan Holosun 507v2 Handgun Red Dot Review

We do some shooting with the new Primary Arms ACSS Vulcan Holosun 507v2 pistol red dot optic, test its durability, and explain the advantages of the ACSS Vul...

youtu.be

 

[SKILCZ]

I am going to have to try one. I think that would solve about 80% of my apprehension to carrying with one.

Primary Arms ACSS Vulcan Holosun 507v2 Handgun Red Dot Review

We do some shooting with the new Primary Arms ACSS Vulcan Holosun 507v2 pistol red dot optic, test its durability, and explain the advantages of the ACSS Vul...

youtu.be

That's the reticle I was talking about . The Vulcan reticle is intuitive, easy to use, and has some ranging features. You can get it in red or green.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

That's the reticle I was talking about . The Vulcan reticle is intuitive, easy to use, and has some ranging features. You can get it in red or green.

That's kind of brilliant!

 

[doubleh]

As to laser sights I tried one at my LGS when they were a fairly new thing. My essential tremors were much less then than now but even then they were unusable. The dot was all over the place.

With a tube red dot I'm just about as fast as with iron sights but a reflex type is much slower for some reason and upon finding the dot I am aiming quite low. That is no problem for range shooting but I will stick with irons for SD. Less bulk and they always work.

 

[Gordon]

I have the ACSS Vulcan Holosun on my Sig Xten "bear defense" pistol that I have been carrying when in the woods or on a Motorcycle under an outer garment in a chest holster. It is faster to acquire the dot with the ACSS Vulcan . I always have preferred the chevron over a dot in any optic I have bought since the 70s , if I had a choice . The Red center chevron of the Trigicon tritium/lightpipe RDS developed in the Mideast wars indeed was and is my favorite on an assault rife. I always liked the picket point of a good heavy German optic for hunting, it is fast , intuitive and precise if you use the sharp point ! On the Sig X-ten I also removed the very good tritium factory Xray Three sights and moved them to an old P220 I had ,and installed TALL "Angry Bear "
protected light pipe sights that cowitness with the ACSS Vulcan Holosun 507C . I do not have a light on the Sigxten for various reasons . One is I don't have a holster that would fit one, and I do have a couple Great holsters for it . Two is the red light pipe sight always will give me a very easy to pick up daylight sight picture and at night the shake awake RDS Holosun with chevron is on duty and I usually search with a flashlight (or night vision) .